


Bed Bug Bites

by Lilxmousey



Category: RWBY
Genre: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, F/M, Loss of Virginity, Molestation, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Painful Sex, Paralysis, Rape, Rough Sex, Stalking, Vaginal Fingering, noncon to dubcon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 01:36:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15853566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilxmousey/pseuds/Lilxmousey
Summary: Ever wonder how sometimes you wake up in bed with bruises you didn’t have the night before?





	1. Preface

**Author's Note:**

> basically this was supposed to just be a one-shot but i've lost control of my life and this happened. so i'm posting this in chapters, even though there are no timeskips save for whatever this pre-story-epilogue is. i haven't written solo in years so bear with me here.

The once peaceful face of a young huntress offered the slightest flinch of distaste to the stir of her slumber, caused by the incessant cheery chirping of some little bird hidden away in the branches of the tree outside her window. Blearily, silver eyes blinked open to lazily stare out at the beams of golden-red morning sunlight projecting onto her face through the window. For a few minutes, Ruby just laid there, cheek on her pillow. Obviously, she’d gotten some sleep but … she felt cranky. Like she hadn’t gotten enough of it. The type of mood that would cause her to growl in annoyance at anyone who tried to give her a cheery greeting. But Ruby was usually the one who was up and at ‘em! Maybe she hadn’t gotten as much sleep as she thought. No one came to bother her about it, so Ruby continued to laze in bed.

A few winces of discomfort disrupted her expression during the process of tossing to roll over on her other side. Eyes shut again, stifling a yawn whilst knees tucked towards her chest. A comfy, cozy little ball to keep in the snuggly warmth of her snooze. Just as it seemed she might be able to get some more sleep, have a lazy little morning to herself, a rapping came at the door to spook her.

“Ruby? C’mon, rise and shine.” The door creaked open for Jaune to peek in, glance apologetically over the snug ball of Rose. All he could see was from the nose up. “Rnnh,” Ruby replied sourly, shimmying in place to affirm her coziness. Sapphire eyes rolled, and Jaune pushed the door all the way open. He was already dressed – albeit without armor yet – and strode over to the younger girl’s bed to sit on the edge. His weight dipped the mattress, and despite her grouchiness, Ruby scooted over to allow him a bit more room.

The blond gave her a warm smile, raising a hand to pat the back of her shoulder blade through bunched-up blankets. “I would’ve let you sleep in a little more, sleepy head, but Qrow’s out cold. He was supposed to talk to Oscar. Something about training, poor kid’s pacing around trying to wait for him to get up. I figured if anybody knew how to wake the guy up, it’s you.”

Jaune’s teeth flashed in a sorrier grin at the way Ruby yanked the sheets up and over her head, evidently not wanting to bother. Just as he opened his mouth to try and convince further, she groaned from beneath, a touch muffled from the materials in the way. “ ** _Then_** can I go back to sleep?” Such a shame that she’d have to waste the time. It almost seemed like the universe’s way of forcing her out of bed _just_ long enough so that she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep as easy. Figures. It was always something, these days. After everything she’d been through, she couldn’t have one lousy morning to sleep in.

The boy chuckled, giving her shoulder another squeeze before getting up and retreating back to the door. “Sure, thing, Rubes.” Hand on the doorknob, Jaune dipped his head curtly. However, the other hand came up to give a playful wag of his finger. “Just be down in ten minutes. Otherwise I’m gonna get Nora to come up here and get you instead.” Halfway through Ruby’s groaning in distress at the very idea of the strawberry-haired valkyrie’s … _intense_ personality coming to wake her up, he left, leaving the door ajar.

Reluctantly, the young Huntress rolled onto her back, raising her arms to press her palms against her face. Slowly, her hands trailed upwards until pushing into two-toned locks of hair. “Ow.” Ruby pipped half-heartedly to herself once the webbing between her fingers snagged on some knots. However long she’d slept, she sure must’ve been tossing and turning a lot. Perhaps after waking her uncle, she ought to brush her hair before returning to bed. Digits retreated the way they came, rubbing up and down once more on her cheeks and squishing her face a little while she hyped herself up.

At the five-minute mark was when she actually sat up. Doing so made some muscles in her abdomen ache, and she hissed, but paid it no mind. The sooner she got this over with, the sooner she could go back to bed. Stifling a yawn, Ruby took pause to scratch the back of her hair. Midnight-turned-crimson ombre looked more like a nest in places than it looked like the layered tresses that she hadn’t found the time to cut in quite some time. She and the remainder of team JNPR – and Uncle Qrow – had been on the road for waaay longer than she cared to be on foot, and haircuts were a luxury with the budget they were all working off.

Speaking of luxuries, Ruby’s nose twitched to the smell of … pancakes. Her mouth watered; no, she was most certainly not mistaken. The natural sweetened sappiness of syrup, the warm fluffy aroma of that plush breakfast delicacy …

The petite reaper hopped right out of bed in her excitement, perking up with a smile. But the pleased look on her face faltered once her body’s weight pressed down on her legs. She stumbled, nearly would’ve fallen if not for the dresser that her hands caught onto. Crescent Rose’s compact mode jangled faintly atop the wood. Knees braced to one another to help keep her upright and shift her center of support. Blankly, she blinked. “Huh. That was weird.” Felt like the day after leg day. But she didn’t do that yesterday. Not to mention, the bottoms of her feet were sore as well.

No matter! Nothing would keep her from her pancakes. It had been so long since she’d been able to spread the melt of a pad of butter over the perfect golden brown of a fluffy pancake, drizzle it in sticky sweet syrup to watch it drool off into amber-brown pools – except, oh yeah, she had an errand to take care of first. Happily, she brushed off the momentary lapse of use in her legs and swept her signature red cloak off the hook it had been hanging on. Just a little something to keep her extra cozy, since the girl was dressed in naught more than her white blouse and a pair of boyshort underwear. The chill of bringing her legs out of the warmth of her ball of blankets started to make itself known, tingling up her spine.

Ruby pulled the tattered and worn crimson cape a bit closer around herself before any goosebumps could dapple her skin. A little abuse of her semblance, and she bolted out of the room, down the hall, and down the stairs in a flurry of red petals to come to a halt by crashing onto one of the two couches in the main room. Thankfully, the unoccupied one. Her momentum however, did nearly send the couch toppling over, creaking onto its back legs before thudding down on all four again.

_Snoooooore . . ._

Right, right. The other couch was occupied by none other than Qrow Branwen, her admired, respected, distinguished, and beloved uncle! Who appeared to have passed out in a drunken haze, drooling on one of the throw pillows on the sofa. Naturally, his clothes were frumpled from sleeping in them all night, and one of his arms hung over the edge of the couch. The back of the veteran Huntsman’s hand laid on the rug, still holding a silvery flask while he snored. Ruby, having landed upside down, rolled over onto her stomach and crawled over the arm of one couch to sit on the other, just above Qrow’s head. First, she poked an index finger against his scruffy unshaven cheek to gauge just how out of it he was. Not even a break in his snoring.

Puffing her cheeks in what was admittedly a hint of a pout, Ruby held out a hand to the presence of one Oscar Pine – though technically one Oscar Pine and one Ozpin – pacing in the kitchen. “Coffee me.” The boy in question paused, raising his brows in mild surprise at the sudden appearance of Ruby. He hadn’t even heard her come crashing in, having a mental conversation with his co-pilot. He glanced to the mug of coffee in his hands, and then to her with a look that mixed between uncertainty and concern.

Silver eyes rolled with a girlish huff. “It’s not for me.” Of course not, coffee is too bitter. After some shifting, she grasped at Qrow’s shoulders and grunted with the effort of pulling him over to lay more on his back. That clicked with Oscar, realizing that the coffee was supposed to be for her uncle. A bit skittishly, he shuffled over and stuck out his arms to offer the mug. Sun-kissed and freckled cheeks held a darkening in them, trying not to observe the state of undress Ruby had unknowingly put herself in. Just about all his time had been spent with his family on the farm, not with girls.

Her hand snatched up the mug, and the other took to adjusting Qrow’s head to tip his chin up and use a gentle grasp on it to open his mouth some more. It stayed open when she let go, and she instead readied the other hand to pinch his nose. The rim of the mug touched to his lips, cocking her head and slooooowly tipping. With a firm pinch, she rather dumped a good bit of the bitter coffee into his mouth, shoved the mug aside, and pushed his mouth shut.

Not two seconds after he’d forcibly gulped the stuff did he shoot upright, dropping his flask and hacking up coughs. Ruby sat back and grinned pleasantly to herself, even giving her chest a prideful little puff. Qrow rubbed at his face and groaned. “How many times do I gotta tell ya not to do that, kiddo?”

“Always gets you up every time~! Oscar, could you get some aspirin for my uncle?”

Another grunt from Qrow, reaching forth to give her a firm pat between her shoulders to encourage her to get off of him. “Yeah, I’ve got one hell of a hangover.” He noted, whilst swinging his legs over to rest the soles of his shoes properly on the floor. Ruby sat aside and palmed a yawn, before hopping up as well to see if she could peruse the kitchen and get those pancakes that she smelled.

Just as she went to walk forward, a hand shot out to snag her by the wrist. Ruby mewed, raising her brows in surprise at the sudden jolt that halted her momentum and tugged her back. Qrow was looking up at her with a funny look, keeping a hold on her. The abrupt action caused Oscar to stay put, hazel eyes flickering worriedly between the two.

“Ruby,” Qrow started, making her feel like she was about to be chided for something, “Where’d you get those bruises from?”

The younger Huntress made a face, puzzled. Qrow’s garnet eyes flickered downwards and back up with a release of her wrist, indicating where he was talking about. Peeking her head forward, silver gaze regarded the length of bare legs. Sure enough, several spots were discolored with bruises. That’s funny, she didn’t have those when she went to bed.

Just under both her knee caps was, varying in size on each leg, a sickly green-yellow bruise. On the interiors of each protruded angle of her ankle as well, the same type of color. Ruby shifted to arch back and have a better look, sticking one of her legs out and cocking her head to the side. Her calves were dappled with varying blooms of purple, blue, and black as well. From here, that was all she could see.

Ruby wasn’t all that concerned about it, just shrugged and smiled reassuringly. “Dunno. Must’ve been sleepwalking again or something and knocked the heck out of my legs on furniture, heh.” Qrow swept his gaze over her legs one more time warily, before offering a noncommittal hum of acknowledgement.

“If you say so, kiddo.” A hand reached up to ruffle at her already tousled locks, and she split a grin and winced in playful annoyance. “Go on upstairs and get those taken care of.”

Oscar cleared his throat, reminding the two of his presence, and offered his own faint albeit awkward smile. “Yeah, Ruby. Thanks for waking him up.” The farm boy tipped his chin towards the staircase she’d come from. “You can go back upstairs and go back to sleep if you want.”

“Hey, is that breakfast I smell?” The eldest Huntsman mused, pushing palms on his knees to get himself to a stand. A few of his bones cracked and he grunted, moving his hands to the small of his back and arching to get more vertebrae to pop. Ruby giggled to herself. He really is getting old, but he’s still as cool as ever.

“Uh, yeah—it – it is.” Oscar answered, skittering after Qrow when he shuffled to the kitchen. “I’ll go upstairs and take care of these bruises and put some pants on, then I’ll come down and join you guys for breakfast!” Ruby delighted, “Uncle Qrow, don’t eat all the pancakes!” She piped, already climbing back up the stairs.

She could hear the smirk in his voice when he called back, “No promises.” Her eyes rolled, but Ruby abused her semblance one more time to zoom back up the stairs and get into her designated bedroom, shutting the door behind her.

Thankfully, there was a bathroom connected to her bedroom, so she moved in there and shut that door behind her as well. It only took a couple moments for her to pull off her cloak, followed by her blouse. She wasn’t gonna do that in front of male company, despite the fact she wasn’t shy at all. Mostly because her uncle had given her a talk on not doing that. But, in any case, it left her totally bare save for her underwear. Nothing exciting, a simple, plain black pair of boyshorts. She wasn’t much for panties, but Yang had gone shopping with her a couple times to ensure her little sister had something cute in her drawers back home.

With the reveal, the young reaper couldn’t help but turn her lips down in a faint frown as she observed herself in the mirror. It looked like there was a lot more bruises and marks she hadn’t noticed. Splotches on either hip, scratches on her waist. Funny reddish marks around the interiors of her thighs and on several spots over each breast, accompanied by crowns of dried blood. A band of bloomed red edged with a few faint touches of purple around both her forearms.

Ruby furrowed her brow in confusion and turned at the waist to inspect her back for more. Sure enough, she found dark black-purple up by her shoulders, intermittent with scrapes that seemed akin to a skinned knee. There were marks on the back of her neck that looked similar to the ones at her inner thighs, but a much angrier color. In fact, both her shoulders were smattered with a couple of those same marks of varying degree. Some looked like they had puncture wounds, some didn’t.

Maybe she went out for a walk in her sleep and ended up sleep-fighting some Grimm or something. But then why didn’t her aura heal it off? Was it because she wasn’t conscious? Oh well. The entirety of the matter was shrugged off. A glow of red outlined her figure, and all those little wounds started disappearing, healing back into unblemished lily-white skin. Ruby sighed in relief, and her aura faded away to start replenishing itself again.

Picking her white blouse back up off the floor and sliding it on, Ruby rebuttoned it and scooped her cloak back up as well on her way out. Leaving the bathroom door open, she hung her cape by the hood on a hook just outside the door and got to work picking up the other clothes she’d discarded last night from the inn’s wooden floor. She didn’t really set them aside or fold them or anything, she remembered being pretty tired last night and hadn’t bothered to deal with them neatly. Piece by piece, Ruby dressed herself.

Her skirt had a couple wrinkles in it but she didn’t mind; it would settle again after a day of wear. Everything was carefully dusted off upon being worn again, before she plucked her cloak from the hook, fastened it around her shoulders, and grinned to herself. Oh, right! Breakfast! Boots pounded on the floor after swinging open the door to her room.

“Hey, don’t finish all the food without me!” Ruby called on her way thundering down the steps.


	2. Chapter 2

**Several Hours Prior**

Eyes of gold pierced the night, keeping a careful watch on the second story room of the tavern across the way. Sixth down from the left; that was hers. One hand cupped loosely over the opposite closed fist, with elbows rested on white-clothed knees. Head tilted to the side, sliding that gold stare to instead direct attention to the crackle of chitin arching over his shoulder.

Tyrian’s chest expanded and sank again as he observed the repair job for about the third time within the hour. He couldn’t help it of course, his Goddess had been so benevolent and forgiving to grace him with such a fine job, he couldn’t wait to give it a proper test on that pesky little flower. Like the beautiful Deathstalker, the barb was a dulled gold that glinted in the light. Further down however, it was black as the night and grafted horrifically to the end of his tail. The process had been painful, but ever worth it for his Goddess.

The faunus’ mouth twitched and quirked, hardly restraining another excited titter before coiling his tail around his waist again. Back his gaze resumed to continue watching the darkened window. Surely the little brat had to be asleep by now. Qrow was already taken care of, the son of a bitch passed out drunk on a sofa; he’d heard the chatter amongst Ruby and her insignificant cohorts on the return they’d made from … wherever they’d gone. He hadn’t caught that much. No doubt to do something as teenagers do on a Friday night.

Admittedly, such a thought had him pondering. Now, he’d never done any of those ‘normal’ things, but what might that young reaper get herself up to? She was certainly quite the troublesome pest, but he couldn’t picture her partaking in anything such as vandalizing or stealing like some sort of delinquent. Nor could he imagine any of her goody two-shoes acquaintances doing so either. What _is_ it that teenagers do? Personally, he could only assume knowledge on the subject to going out for parties and hanging around public places. Though it was a bit late to be hanging around much of anywhere. It seemed as if perhaps they’d enjoyed their time wherever it is that they went – he had stuck around the tavern to keep an eye on Qrow and see if he went anywhere – but it hadn’t failed to amuse the scorpion when the group first left and that flower had seemed reluctant to leave.

But that didn’t matter. What mattered was in lieu of being able to shift closer and check on Branwen, the children on their return made a few small bets amongst themselves on if he’d fallen asleep yet. Upon opening the door where he couldn’t see inside, a few of the gnats stifled their laughter and lien exchanged hands to the winners. Ruby was one of those winners, obviously knowing her uncle best among the group, and a bubbly giggle of hers was the laugh that stood out the most. It had made his chest feel rather strange, the tips of his fingers twitchy, and Tyrian had pondered when the last time he had heard anyone but himself laugh was.

Fidgeting at the remembrance, the faunus curled the side of his mouth in distaste, glancing over to the glowing projection of a silently ticking clock’s face just beneath the belfry of a community center some ways in the distance peeking through a line of trees. An hour and a half he’d been sitting here. Yes, surely the girl had to be asleep by now.

So it was then that the man rose to his feet, brushing himself off for but a moment before he split a grin and made the leap across the way to silently land in the tree whose boughs hung near to her bedroom window. Tyrian touched down at a neat crouch, on the toes of his boots with heels touched together and knees spread wide apart to allow his palms to hold the branch between his legs. Leaves faintly rustled against one another, but if she had yet to actually fall asleep as he hoped, could easily be written off as a tease of wind. A branch above him, a little bird made a small peep of disturbance.

The scorpion raised his head, lifting a hand to press a single index finger to his lips to quietly shush the creature as if it could understand. He couldn’t manage it with a straight face for more than a second and a half, able to feel his lips split against his finger before withdrawing it and halting the chirping crickets with a tongue-bitten giggle of glee. Not even the soft leather of his boots creaked when he stalked forward, palm then foot, palm then foot along the branch.

Eager to take part, his tail uncoiled from around his waist when he came to a halt in front of her window, making eye contact with his own giddy reflection in the pane. The barbed tip hooked ever so delicately between the panes of the casement-style window. A small tug received naught more than a faint rattle. Ah, good girl; locking her windows at night. Tyrian had to resist talking to himself, just in case she was awake past the curtains. So he noted to himself mentally.

_Wouldn’t want someone to steal you away, now, would we my little flower?_

Oh, how he fought not to snicker. A lock would still be futile, he would soon have that girl in his clutches. The gold tip of his tail shifted, turning to press the barb in against the lock and get a better feel of what it looked like inside. Once he had done that, his tail withdrew to loop around his waist, and he fished a hand down low to one of his boots to find a lockpick. Upon retrieving it and bringing it to his eye, Tyrian couldn’t help but release another snicker, this time biting down on his bottom lip to keep himself quiet.

Quietly, metal clinked and clicked against metal, using some delicate finger movements to test the give of each pin in the tumbler and gauge how much pressure would be needed on the springs behind them. He almost wanted to hum a tune to himself as he worked, but he still couldn’t know for sure if that precious young reaper lay awake in bed.

**Click.**

There went the pins in the lock, aligned perfectly to feign the entry of a key. Turning his wrist, Tyrian shifted his weight to lean aside and allow the window to be cracked. Almost as if it’d had a mind of its own, when Tyrian leaned forward again and started forward at the same time he slipped the lockpick back into his boot, his tail came up to assist and pry the window open. The curtain of the opened side undulated at the draft that came into the room, and it was only moments before the faunus was creeping over the windowsill, upper body first like a cat descending its perch.

Like he had done with the tree, the man came to a crouch just inside the room. Gold eyes had already adjusted to the light and judging by the quiet snoring coming from the bed, the child was fast asleep. Pity, she wouldn’t even see it coming. One hand raised up off the floor, nearly touching his thumb to his jaw while he wiggled his fingers towards himself in contemplation. Tyrian’s predatory gaze sought around the room, taking in his immediate surroundings to see what he might have to work with or deal with.

Red and black metal folded up neatly and set on the dresser. With her asleep, using his new venom would be enough of a cinch that the poor thing wouldn’t even be able to get those few feet to her weapon; so that was no ordeal. Crimson fabric, tattered at its hem hung off a hook by the door. It quirked the corner of his mouth again in amusement, perhaps some part of him having expected the training Huntress to be snuggled up with her iconic cloak. A continued sweep of his gaze began to determine just how little she must have been snuggled up with in that cozy bed of hers.

Black skirt and red petticoat lay in a forgotten heap at her bedside, a black corset with the laces hastily undone found a place by the door next to hole-ridden translucent dark stockings. No matter, it simply meant the girl would be that less defended when he took her. Keeping low, Tyrian began to prowl across the floor, shifting past a briefly illuminating strand of moonlight bleeding through the cracked window. Shifting his eyes to keep a watch on the mass of sheets on the bed, the faunus slinked around to the bed’s opposite side; the side she was sleeping on, which just so happened to be closest to the door.

Her boots were at the bedside, no doubt ready for her to jump into at a moment’s notice. One stood upright, while the other had fallen over. Atop the bedside table on the far end were brown bracers that were usually worn over the sleeves of her blouse. When he came to a halt, facing the window and the bed – and her in it – fingertips parted from the floor in a ghosting caress as he rose to stand fully. Gold-tipped tail arched around his side, a blink of his eyes shifting their color from a matching hue to the Deathstalker tip into a toxic purple.

“Hn, hnhn~” He restrained his chuckling as a wicked grin spread across his mouth, peeking his tongue out from between the top and bottom rows of teeth. The barbed tip of Tyrian’s tail twitched and flexed, anxious to dive forth and plunge into the girl, pump her full of venom. But then, his gaze graced along her face. Peaceful, albeit rather homely considering the state of rest she was in.

Ruby lay mostly on her stomach, head turned to the door with the arm closest the window raised and draped back over her head, fingertips brushing the back of her blouse on the opposite shoulder. Her other arm made its home tucked up underneath her, vaguely parallel with her clavicle. One of her youthful cheeks, still faintly plush with a hint of baby fat, was squished up against the pillow. Lips parted a small bit, slipping out those subtle snores on occasion.

Tyrian lowered his tail with a fade of that grin, instead tucking the corner of his mouth with a pouty exhale of breath from his nose. Another blink and his eyes changed back to their golden color, shifting a boot to turn halfway and survey the room. Too vulnerable. The flower was much too vulnerable like this, it wouldn’t be any fun if she hadn’t at least a little hint what was going on. For all he knew, she wouldn’t even wake upon a prick of his poisoned barb and being carried up out of her bed. He might need to test her first.

One of the faunus’ arms took up residence neatly aligning the top of his wrist with the small of his back. The other raised its hand, keeping all fingers closed save for the index which curled and rested its side underneath his bottom lip. The man twisted at the waist, furrowing his brow in thought. He’d have to wake her somehow… but how could he do so without compromising his kidnapping? It had to be interesting, of course. Tyrian glanced to the girl. Yank her off the bed, startle her out of whatever pleasant little dreams she was having? No, she might scream and alert the others.

He turned his eyes to the cloak hanging by the door. Perhaps he could wad up that material and shove it in her mouth so she wouldn’t scream? A much more personal idea, but no, that wouldn’t work either. She might not scream, but she could use that pesky semblance of hers and bolt right on out the open window. The arm behind his back pulled forward, folding over a partially bared and scarred chest to loosely hold onto the opposite bicep. The posturing of his other hand shifted to lay his index finger extended upward along his cheek, pressing his thumb to follow the track of his jawline whilst the other fingers remained curled and pressed the side of his middle finger to his chin.

Feet shifted to press his heels together as he continued to think. It was her weapon that his gaze next landed on, cocking his head to the side. He could pull it off the dresser and let it clatter to the floor while he hid somewhere and lie in wait for her to pick it up… ah, no, of course not. She may be young but she wasn’t hardly **_that_** stupid; the movement of such a heavy object would have to be caused intentionally and would no doubt raise her suspicions and allow her a chance to get away.

Gold stare followed up onto the closet, finding a curl to his lips at the thought of hiding there. Yes, he could hide in the closet, rattle hangers around and draw her attention. She would creep over to investigate and then he’d fire right out and see the look on her face-

That building grin fell to a frown. No, he supposed he couldn’t do that either. It would give away his position, and with the poor little flower likely on edge to things that go bump in the night, she might go for her weapon before coming to investigate. That girl – while her aim against him could use some work – had quite the trigger finger. Getting off a shot, even if she didn’t scream, would alert the others, and even if he could get away, they’d be on the trail in minutes.

Feeling his cheek twitch in irritation that he had yet to come up with an interesting little plan to spook her and make sure she was awake when he took her, Tyrian turned back to the bed to glower at Ruby as she slept. Near silent, his tail swished behind his back in annoyance. The brat hadn’t even stirred from the moments ago that he’d been watching her. And suddenly, it clicked. There, on the bedside table, the dark-haired girl left a small remote that no doubt went to the screen installed on the far wall at the end of the bed.

At least twenty seconds he spent staring at the object, cogs beginning to turn in the fractured mind of the scorpion. And then his mouth began to curl into a crooked, cruel smirk of delight. Shoulders jittered with restrained giggles, and he couldn’t help but wiggle his hips in excitement with both hands up near his cheek to quietly patter the tips of his fingers together. Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes! Simply perfect. She’d never see what hit her until it was too late.

Practically snatching the remote off the table, Tyrian dropped into a crouch, and then shifted lower to rest some of his weight onto his arms and promptly crawl underneath the bed, grinning the entire way. _How poetic! A brave little girl who fights dreadful monsters brought undone by the monster lurking beneath her bed. Tyrian Callows, you sly devil, you~_

He left his tail out last as he crawled to nestle a place beneath the box spring. Fuck if it wasn’t incredibly difficult not to cackle, but it was imperative that he not make a sound. Not yet. Biting down on his bottom lip, trying and failing to withhold his grin as gold eyes watched the stinger that they matched slowly drag itself underneath the bed and weave neatly beside him. Who was he making these dramatics for? Why, himself of course. In any case, his tail could have coiled into a spiral up beside him, but he wanted it perfectly ready to dart out and stab Ruby.

After a shimmy of delighted anticipation, the plan was set into motion. He reached forth with the hand holding the remote, just far enough to press the power button and click the screen to life. Vibrant moving color lit up the dark, and as soon as the rock music pierced the night, Tyrian slid the remote to send it skittering across the floor and let it bump into the wall beneath the wall-mounted screen. Above the hunch of his shoulders, the bed jolted and the faunus curled his tongue to slide the top of the tip over his bottom lip. Silently, his fingers drummed impatiently on the floor. A few bedsprings creaked and above the blare of the recently played fighting game’s wailing guitar, his attentive ears caught a sound between a mew and a groan.

Up above, oblivious to the intruder, Ruby’s face twisted in dislike for the disturbance to her sleep. The hand of the arm draped over her head shifted when she rolled over, pawing at the bedside table to find the remote. Sometime before bed she’d been playing that silly little fighting game and didn’t turn the volume back down when she was done. The discomfort on her face only deepened when continued smacking of her hand on the bedside table resulted in nothing. A louder groan, and the bed creaked again with Ruby sitting up and blearily rubbing the back of her hand over a closed eye whilst the other opened to have a look and see where the remote had gone. Had she knocked it to the floor on accident? Nope. At least not in the immediate vicinity of the bedside table.

Finishing up the rubbing over her eye, the young Huntress stifled a yawn and blinked the other open, slouching in bed. There, she spotted it. In the changing light of the menu playing along the floor, was the remote underneath the screen. “Man, how’d you get all the way over there...?” Ruby muttered tiredly, scooting to the edge of the bed and swinging her legs off. Bare feet touched to the floor, and she slid herself off the end with a more audible yawn, shuffling over and stooping to pick up the remote. Lifting her chin to squint at the screen – which bothered her dilated pupils into contracting – Ruby’s hand aimed the remote up and shut it off again. Raucous electric guitar and its accompanying drums suddenly cut out, but the music still masked the shift and chitter of chitin plates unfurling and slipping forth along the floor.

“Ow–” A sharp pain at the back of her calf, like a paper cut, was shortly followed by a bolt up her spinal cord. Her fingers came undone, releasing the remote and letting it clatter to her floor. In the same second, her legs refused to carry her anymore and the entirety of her body felt like the strange internal pressure of when you’ve yet to move a limb afflicted by pins and needles. Pressured, but not tingling. Ruby’s limp body dropped to the floor; but it was only when she found herself not actually hitting the floor, instead caught from her underarms with an unintentionally turned drop of her head that let her eyes see the glow of purple orbs from beneath her bed, that she realized she’d not just had a bout of her entire body falling asleep at once.

Tyrian finally allowed himself a snicker, crawling out from underneath Ruby’s bed with his tail having caught the poor thing from thudding too cacophonously to the floor. “Heehee! Oh, good; I’m ever so glad to see that the neurotoxin hasn’t stopped your internal bodily functions. This would be a tad less exciting of a meeting if your little heart had ceased its beating or you’d stopped breathing, no~?”

Ruby did everything in her power to will her lips and tongue to move, to try and come up with even a growl to direct at the faunus. Gods, she’d never expected to see him again, and certainly not so soon. She never _wanted_ to see him again, after he almost killed her uncle. Not to mention he tried to kidnap her. Something clicked, and though she couldn’t move any other part of her, Tyrian was picking up on the sudden realization that she was having. He had seen the slight contracting of her pupils in those pretty little silver eyes. It spurred his grin to widen that much further, carefully lifting the girl up and away from the floor into more of a semblance of being upright. At least, as much as he could with his tail in its current position.

A hand touched to her cheek, cupped it and guided so she would look at him directly. Amethyst eyes were back to gold in a single blink, and the scorpion tilted his head to the side in a manner Ruby couldn’t help but contemplate as looking rather uncomfortable for his neck. “Speechless, are you? Hehehaha, just as well, I should be keeping our voices down lest we alert your pesky acquaintances.” With that, Tyrian lowered his voice to something more subdued, becoming a touch raspier with the intimacy in tone. “Wordless as you are, just as we met before my dear; I’m here to whisk you away with me.”

She had gone limp, but not numb. When he took her into his arms, she could feel it. And she hated it. She’d never been close to him like this before, when they met last, and now that she was? Her skin dappled with goosebumps of disgust. It wasn’t quite a bridal carry that he scooped her up into, Ruby found herself being held more like a child, cradled in Tyrian’s grasp. An arm bent and tucked behind her head, keeping it upright and using his forearm to hold along the side of her body while his hand splayed across the small of her back. His other had looped beneath the backs of her legs, draping them over the opposite side and out of his grasp.

Her cheek rested against the front side of his shoulder, against his coat, and all she could do was stare up at him. For the time being he paid her no mind, humming a cheery little tune to himself and watching as his tail coiled its tip around the limp arm hanging closest to his body to guide it up and over to lay in her lap. Ruby’s remaining hand was left to dangle down over the back of his left forearm. During that process, he started striding with purpose to the open window. A cool breeze danced over her skin, and the girl flicked her eyes to glance out into the dark, eyes slowly beginning to adjust back to the low light level.

Once his tail had completed its task of affixing her arm so he could cradle her closer, it nestled its place to coil snug around his waist and remain hidden to the world once more. Tyrian shouldered the window open a hint more, before lifting a leg and stepping up onto the sill. He had to duck of course, but once he leaned out he stepped forward into open air and allowed himself to fall straight down. Almost silently, his boots landed on the grass outside, jostling Ruby in his grasp when he dropped into a squat upon landing. But the faunus didn’t dawdle; the sooner he got her out of here, the less likely it was that they’d be tracked if anyone abruptly decided to check on her empty bed. He stood right back up, gold stare shifting down to her silver one to flash her a toothy smirk.

As delightful as it would have been to gaze into those silver pools and walk his entire way to the camp he’d made, they were burning moonlight. The man flicked his eyes back up, and dashed off, sprinting into the night. Soft leather boots carried him as fast as he could go, dodging and weaving through streets, leaping over and onto buildings and houses without missing a beat in his step. There had been only one occasion that they passed anyone, and it wasn’t someone who would’ve taken a care to what was going on anyhow. A lowly thug leaned on an alley corner, hands in his pockets and smoking. Tyrian whizzed by him and bounded over the chain-link fence at the end.

Upon his boots meeting grass and his eye catching the edge of the woods, he couldn’t help himself. He kept running of course, not much caring if he rattled his cargo around, but he had to express his excitement. He crowed a short bark of a laugh and began prattling on. “Oh, the fun you and I will have together, little flower! Such a shame you haven’t as silver a tongue as your precious little eyes, I’m certain you would be spouting quite the fanfare at me, wouldn’t you?” Once more, eyes teased down to hers as they disappeared into the tree-line. There was no lower or knit of her brow, but he didn’t need to see that to see the look in her eyes. A sparking of anger in her irises, hatred; so pure in its contempt for the faunus.

“Kehehaha~! Oh I can see venom in your eyes, my dear, but mine is stronger and has clipped those thorns of yours for now.” Tyrian raised his gaze, flickering about to find the subtle markers he’d left for himself, shifting his direction on occasion so he could follow them. “Rest assured precious thing, should you behave yourself and be a good girl for Tyrian, I might be so kind as to relieve your condition.” He paused in his speech, mouth curling impishly at its ends. “Mnwell, hehe, I suppose you **_can’t_** be anything but a good girl, now can you? Limp as roadkill and you can’t hardly make a sound!” Ruby blinked once, watching his bottom lip tuck so he could bite down on it, failing to keep the grin on his face from widening. “I do _wonder_ however, perhaps if I try hard enough I might be able to pry a scream from those silent lips.” At the very least, she managed to shut her eyes as his madness bubbled up in his throat, words dissolved into uneven ecstatic cackles of sadistic delight.

Tyrian’s abdomen began to ache with each new laugh, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. ‘Twas only fair, when he’d lost his tail in the first place to the bitch she’d wrenched an agonized and anguished bellow from him. Now that he had her at his mercy, there was no reason he couldn’t earn a similar one from her. Salem had only requested that the girl be brought back alive. Didn’t mean he couldn’t have a bit of fun with her beforehand. It would only become a question of what he could take as an exchange for his precious tail? Laughter died down, mood quickly shifting to one of annoyance. When he quieted, Ruby opened her eyes again and noticed that he had quite the scowl of concentration on his face, and he wasn’t looking at her.

The girl didn’t have a tail of her own for him to make compensation with, so that was out of the question. He had adored the concept of taking one of those lovely and bothersome eyes out of her skull in exchange for the one she’d taken from Cinder – goodness for such a young thing she already had quite the track record for amputation – and would’ve liked to sink his stinger into one of them to rip right out of the socket, but Salem wouldn’t have that. That privilege was supposed to be for the annoying underling. Come to think of it, he couldn’t lop anything of hers off. His fingers tightened their hold on the girl as he darted and jumped through the branches of the trees. No, even for how whole-heartedly he served his Goddess, how unwavering his adoration for her, she favored that one-armed bitch. Cinder had gotten her graft as a gift. Tyrian had to work for his, had to earn back the right of having his tail.

It bothered Ruby that she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. His hold on her had tightened, and she could see a lip curling, see his jaw tighten and feel the vibration of an angered growl rumbling from the chest pressed to her side. How quickly his mood had shifted also bothered her; whatever it was, clearly took place in his own thoughts. She hadn’t done or said anything. She couldn’t. Tyrian slowed from his sprint to a jog, and then from a jog into striding along. All she could do was stare at him. There was nothing to alert her that they’d arrived at his camp, no light of a fire dancing on the edge of her vision, and so she hadn’t looked. Her eyes widened in the moment that she abruptly lost all contact with him, unceremoniously dropped to the grassy floor. Tyrian’s hands clapped together once, raising his brows and tipping his chin up.

“Right then!” He began, making a wide gesture with his arms to show off the miniscule camp to her like some grand presentation. It surprised her how easily he dropped back into a neutrally expressed emotion rather than the indignation he’d been feeling moments ago. “Here, with me, is where you will be staying. For the next… hmm… well this camp in particular will only be here for the night. In the morning we’ll move again.” A beat, and Tyrian squatted in front of her, elbows draped on his knees so he could tilt his head low to hers and let her see the lopsided grin he held. A titter sounded from the faunus, reaching out with one hand to ever so delicately bop her on the nose with a fingertip. “At least, **_I’ll_ ** be moving again.”

Tongue traced over the grin of his teeth at the darkening of fresh hatred in her eyes. He hadn’t a doubt in his mind, as splintered as it was, that if he hadn’t paralyzed her, Ruby would be fighting him to the death. And here, she couldn’t do a thing but glower at him. He couldn’t help but to snigger at her reaction before he dropped to his side, laying beside her in the grass with an elbow braced to the ground and elbow bent so he could prop his head up with the heel of his palm at his temple. Tyrian’s free hand drummed fingers impatiently past the blades of grass to tap rhythmically on the dirt, keeping his gaze locked onto Ruby’s. His smirk didn’t falter.

“So much time for us to spend together. I haven’t the slightest clue what we should do first. I’m a bit of a nocturnal creature myself, so I’ve _aaaaaaaalll_ night to figure something out,” His tail shuffled aside coattails to return a presence, using the curved side of his stinger to heft the girl’s chin at himself, “Any suggestions~?” Obviously, Ruby didn’t have a thing to say, but that didn’t stop her from giving him just about the dirtiest look that she possibly could.

With a roll of his own eyes, his tongue clucked and a hand raised off the grass to bop the heel of his palm against his forehead. “T’agh, of course!” He piped, as if Ruby had responded to his question, “Why didn’t I think of that? What a wonderful, creative little thinker you are, my flower. Come, come, we’ll get started immediately.” She hadn’t the slightest clue what he was talking about, but he was already on his way up, shifting his tail to coil around her waist and hold her upright. He didn’t even bother brushing himself off before taking a hand and flourishing his fingers along her jawline to grace down and cup her chin, making sure her head stayed raised to look at him. The tips of her toes didn’t even brush the blades of grass beneath her dangling legs and he still had to turn her head up to make her look at him when he was stood upright. Tyrian tended to have a hunch to his shoulders – even then, he towered over her – but right now his posture was prideful, domineering, completely full of himself.

Another giggle sounded from him, absolutely tickled pink. “I can see that look in your eyes, but don’t worry. I’ll be glad to elaborate. You see, as you are now, I must say you’re quite like a doll.” He tilted his head to match the angle of hers upon easing his touch from her chin enough to get her cheek to touch into his palm. “In fact, had I not already known better, I might think you were more cut out to be one rather than a Huntress. Pristine skin as pale as a lily,” A thumb caressed over her cheek to accent his point and he ignored the way her eyes flinched, “Bright eyes like December’s moonlight,” Tyrian’s grin began to fall to a more neutral expression upon letting his hand continue to travel upward, carding through tousled two-toned locks, “Dark hair… hmnh, a bit untamed but you have been on the road for some time, haven’t you?”

Gold eyes blinked with a realization that he may have been looking too much into it, and with a forward lean, Tyrian raised a cheeky grin again. “Mmmnh, you’d be much prettier if you smiled, you know.” Playfully, the faunus tapped a finger on her cheek before sliding his hand back down to hold her jaw whilst he straightened once more. “Right! Now that I’ve gotten off topic, back to the point. My point is, my dear, is that dolls are meant for playing. And that is exactly what we’re going to do. Play together; at least, for a little while.”

Ruby didn’t like the sound of that one bit. At least she could be somewhat thankful for the fact that for whatever reason, he hadn’t started mutilating her or depleting her aura so that he could. She’d never wanted to see the psychotic faunus after what he did, though it had been a rare occasion that she had a nightmare about it. If she ever _did_ see him again, the Huntress had been certain that he would’ve wanted to get even with her somehow, or just kill her outright. Not... something like this. She was right when she said it the first time. _This guy’s weird._

With the way that Tyrian had coiled his tail around her waist, extending it and uncoiling a bit brought Ruby out of his personal space and a bit out of the way with a twirl. The faunus cocked his hip to the side and made an ‘L’ out of his index finger and thumb to cup his chin with. “Hm… now, I suppose the question is, what sort of scene shall we play out together?” Grass rustled beneath the tapping of the toe of his boot through the blades. Ruby could only stare with her head lolled to the side as Tyrian narrowed his gaze in thought, starting to gain a hunch to his shoulders again.

If she could’ve recoiled or jumped, the sudden lurch upward of the man’s posture and snap of his fingers with a crowed “Aha!” of inspiration would’ve certainly made her do so. The grin he displayed upon giving his hands a single preparatory clap together was a strange form of almost childish delight. “Now, first I thought perhaps I could practice presenting you to my Goddess, but it would be a disservice to her Grace for either of us to dare do some sort of impression of her. No, no. Instead! I rather like the idea of you being reduced to something as domestic as a little housewife. Besides,” He elaborated with a close of his eyes and upward tilt of his chin, making a dismissive motion with his hand, “That’s what sort of fantasies most children like to play out with their dolls, isn’t it?”

A singular gold eye peeked open to glance at her with a mild disinterest. He took note of the look of distaste in her own gaze. “Though I suppose, if you ever had dolls, a child such as yourself who so highly romanticizes the idea of Huntsmen wouldn’t spend time on those things, now would you?” He couldn’t help a small snicker. “Precisely why, my darling little flower, this is the most perfect time to have you take a part in acting out what I can see in your eyes that you loathe the monotony of.” The chitin of his tail clicked upon shifting, Tyrian’s grin widening as he brought her in close again to pat her head placatingly. His left eye had a faint more of a squint than the right, causing the asymmetry of his expression to unnerve Ruby. “That, and I do believe you would have made someone quite the cute little wife if you didn’t now belong to my Queen.”

Tyrian sauntered over to where the majority of his camp was settled, tail swaying the Huntress-in-training behind him with every step. Puffing his chest, he settled his bracers to cross neatly at the base of his spine. His camp was honestly nothing more than a bedroll, a single bag, and a fallen log. His tail swung out front of him, in order to place Ruby down with her back braced against the log to keep her upright. **_Finally_** , it withdrew from her again and she could’ve nearly rolled her eyes up in the rapture of being freed entirely of his touch. It felt like it had been forever since he wasn’t touching her.

“It’s quite a pity, you know,” The faunus hummed, interrupting her rejoice to pop a squat next to her. He feigned a saddened voice and knit his brow in mock sympathy along with a pout of his lip. “Once I’ve returned you to her, you won’t be anything. I must admit; I haven’t the slightest clue what she might have planned for you.” Briefly, Tyrian’s eyes ticked to the side and back to her, smirking. “Save of course, for allowing Cinder to make you match her. Maybe take out those bright eyes. Instead of a silver-eyed warrior, you can be a no-eyed warrior.” The male clucked his tongue and his smirk dropped again. “Aside from that, what I _do_ know is that you will not be a Huntress anymore. And you certainly will not have an opportunity at a ‘normal’ life anymore, either.” A second time, a grin crept onto his features, reaching forth with a hand to cup her chin and tip her head up to look at him better. “So perhaps enjoy this little experience while it lasts, hm?”

Just as quickly as the touch came, it was gone again with an eruption of tittering when the faunus stood and turned his back on her, winding his tail around his waist for the time being. Tyrian paused, glancing over his shoulder to grin crookedly at Ruby. “You stay riiiiight there, silver eyes.” He enjoyed the flare of anger in her eyes, challenging him ‘ _As if I could do anything else’_. Tyrian offered a juvenile giggle, before leaping away into the brush. Silence ensued, and after what must’ve been at least three minutes, Ruby found her eyes worriedly flickering around, trying to listen past the chirping of crickets. But, as she was beginning to wonder if he was actually coming back around anytime soon, the man suddenly entered her peripheral vision.

He had on one of those lopsided smirks of his, striding with purpose and sweeping his arms out. “Honey, I’m home~!” He piped in announcement. That time, Ruby _did_ roll her eyes at not only the sheer cliché of such a line, but also out of disgust for the implications that he was pretending that she was his wife or whatever this sick stupid little game was. Her eyes widened however, when he snapped his tail forth and snagged her by the waist, hefting the doll of a Huntress up off the ground. He mimed a little up and down motion on her when he stopped, to briefly touch her toes to the ground with every little forward bound that his tail made to pull her closer and closer until her chest was right up on his and he dropped her to instead lock his arms around her and give her a twirl. At least she didn’t have to hug back. Eugh.

“Heehee, I knew you’d be happy to see me!” When he withdrew, his tail coiled around her waist again, just beneath her ribcage to keep her held upright. One of his hands squished her cheeks in his fingers while his other took one of her wrists to pose her with a hand on her hip. Then he started to squeeze her cheeks with his fingers to get her lips to move, heightening his voice as high and girlish as he could possibly make it.

Evidently he was going to provide her dialogue for this interaction as well. “ _I missed you so much! I hope you had a good day at work, you always stay out so late!”_ With that, the arm that made her hand stay on her hip looped around her and he started back along towards where he’d yanked her away from. Tyrian also released her face with his other hand, bringing her along until he sat down on the log and kept her standing. His elbows rested on his knees, back hunched whilst he feigned a tired expression. “Oh, yes. Always so much hard work going out and killing all those Huntsmen.” Ruby glared as best as she could manage. Of course he had to put his own sick twist onto it.

This time, when he had her ‘speak’, he didn’t bother bringing her in close so he could squish her face. Instead, he just gave her another slight jostling that made her head jangle around faintly on her spine. _“Of course! My poor darling. I fixed a lovely dinner for us to have together!”_ Again with that high voice that was a terrible imitation of hers. Tyrian half-lidded his eyes in an elitist manner, raising his posture to lay a hand over his chest. “Now of course my dear, I should hope that comes with a dess-HAH~!” Abruptly, completely out of the blue, Tyrian’s eyes widened with a bark of laughter and he shot to stand.

Admittedly, it had spooked Ruby’s heart, pounding in her chest and regarding him with flickering hues saturated in confusion. His hands rubbed together and he began to giggle, and then it built louder into a full-on cackling crescendo. Tyrian smacked a hand to his cheek, grinning uncontrollably, trying to stifle his laughter and not making it. He stumbled in a step forth at her, dragging his hand down to stretch the side of his face briefly. With a few occasional bubbles of snickering, the man moved that hand to curl an index finger and wipe away a tear.

“My, I’m so sorry, terribly rude of me to cut our little scene so short but! I’ve suddenly had the most brilliant vision of something even better we can act out together.” Tightening the hold of chitin coils around her, the faunus yanked her in close to press his forehead to hers, raise his brows with insane delight and stare right into her eyes. “I would _love_ to recreate what happened on Beacon’s tower. At the very tippy top. You remember, don’t you~?” The timbre of his voice took on a taunting lilt at how something seemed to crack in those pools of silver. “What you saw, what you did to Cinder… it’ll be great fun, don’t you think?”

Despite the fact she couldn’t move, despite the fact she couldn’t talk. Ruby’s vision of twitching and flitting gold orbs blurred. Her eyes leaked wet warmth, and she almost mentally thanked the blessing of blurring her vision for allowing her to be less able to see how Tyrian’s smirk ever widened as tears spilled over her cheeks. Still bemused with having made her cry, he morphed his expression to faked sympathy a second time, tutting his tongue and cupping her cheek. His gaze stayed locked on each of the droplets that trailed down her porcelain face.

“Shhh… sh, sh, sh. Poor little thing. Does it **hurt** to remember? I’m sure it does…” The quirk on the corners of his mouth began to fall, the look on his face neutralizing when he trailed his eyes back up to hers. Obviously he relished in the deep sorrow that he’d coaxed out from her silvered stare, but the color. The color reminded him of what he was dealing with. Perhaps it was best not to tempt triggering those emotions too harshly. At least, not until someone could get those pretty eyes out of her head. He ticked his head to the side, searching her misty-eyed expression with a look of his own that conveyed a wary displeasure.

Thoughtfully, tongue ran over the crown of a molar in his mouth as he stared. Unceremoniously, Tyrian used the heel of his palm along with his thumb to wipe those tears and their trails off her face. “Tell you what.” And he told her the truth. “Because I would rather not have half of my body scorched off like that incompetent maiden, shall we do something more fun instead? A little birdie told me that not a single person danced with you at your little...” Leaning out of her personal space as Ruby was blinking her tears back and restoring clarity to her vision, he used both hands to make a pair of air quotes. “‘prom’. If I’m going to whisk you away to my Queen, I can’t guarantee you’ll be keeping your legs.”

Once again, a crooked grin returned to his face. Holding her out from him, Tyrian laid an arm over his chest and the other out to the side, shifting a boot behind him to sweep into a humbly low bow that caused the tail-like braid of his hair to shift over his shoulder and hang in front of him. “I’d be honored to take your last dance, precious rose.” Five full seconds of silence followed before Tyrian tipped his head up enough to peek his eyes open and throw her a wickedly pleased look. “Ah, no protests then? Keeheeheehee,” he sniggered, “Why, I’d almost say perhaps I’m starting to grow entwined into that little garden of yours. That is, if I didn’t know better.” Once more he straightened, but the faunus dragged her in close. Once she was within arm’s reach, his hands sought hers and netted her digits with his own.

Still, Ruby couldn’t be upright on her own, and he didn’t much feel like moving his tail anyhow. That stayed right where it was, finding a resting place winding as much of its length as it could around her waist to keep her held close against him. Their differences in height made it even less of an ideal thing than Ruby could’ve thought. She wasn’t going to walk – clearly, he saw no point to even having her feet on the ground – and even with her dangling toes barely brushing against the tips of grass blades, her sternum only pressed to his abdomen with only the material of her blouse separating his scarred skin from hers. Momentarily, he raised a hand off hers to let it drop back to her side so he could scoop his braid with his fingers and give it a careless toss back over his back. Just as before, Tyrian took her hand back in his; even giving it a possessive squeeze.

“Hrm, I suppose your lack of responsiveness does make things a touch difficult but…” During his pause, teeth bit down on his bottom lip, making some small half-hearted effort to conceal his grin. After a lip-bitten chuckle, he continued, voice lowered a few octaves with a hunch of his shoulders to bring him closer to her. “Wouldn’t be any fun if it were so easy. Don’t you agree~?” The faunus didn’t even wait this time for the time it would take her to respond if she could’ve, moving right along into guiding her hands where he wanted them. “Let’s see now… you _are_ a bit of a small thing, aren’t you?” He commented idly, hunter’s gold gaze focused on the task of manipulating her form. A hand was drawn upwards to the lapel of his coat, just over his clavicle, but the other hand he couldn’t quite manage in the proper hold. So, he settled for ducking his arm underneath hers so he could slide it around her hip and splay his palm at the small of her back.

The hand near his shoulder wouldn’t stay on its own, but that was only a minor inconvenience. Tyrian was more than happy to keep it in its place with a caging hold of his own fingers. What he wasn’t as pleased with was the fact he couldn’t keep that head turned up to look at him, he didn’t have a free hand to be able to manipulate the Huntress’ chin up to revel in the burning hatred in her eyes. A small rumble of annoyance sounded in the man’s chest, squinting his gaze and quirking his mouth to the side to chew at the inside of his lip thoughtfully with his canines. Chitin hissed against the material of Ruby’s blouse when he decided to readjust the wrap of his tail. One coil around her waist, the next sliding between them to cross over her chest. The grafted gold and black stinger traveled over her own collar, around the back of her neck with its disgusting insectile crackle and scooped underneath her chin. Ruby’s stare was forcefully directed upwards, witnessing the growth of yet another crookedly content smirk upon Callows’ roughened mouth.

“There they are,” He cooed mockingly, canting his head to the side and regarding her with half-hooded eyes of his own, daring to caress the side of his stinger’s barb over her cheek. Enough pressure to cause a dip of her supple flesh, but not enough to cut her. Like ever so delicately skating the flat of a knife on her face. “Those radiant silver eyes. _Oh,_ and the way you **_hate_** me so. Not a tensing on that pretty little face of yours and I can still see just how much you abhor me.” Tyrian didn’t make an effort to stop the growl at the end of his voice, loving the moment. Ruby eyed him silently as ever, the shade of her eyes seeming to be darkened and sparking with the fervent contempt she felt. This whole experience was almost worth all the trouble he’d gone to in order to make it happen. Without a word, without an expression, without so much as a movement; Ruby Rose was one expressive human being.

Something in the faunus’ chest made its own spark. If he hadn’t been so focused on her, maybe he’d explore it, but that wasn’t the case. They had activities to be getting to, he’d held her like this long enough. “Shall we, my dear blossom?” Seeing that familiar look in her eyes of ‘ _I don’t have a choice and you know it, shut up already_ ’ incited a hearty snicker from Tyrian, but he didn’t ask any more questions. Off they went, with him instead busying his vocal cords to hum a tune. Unnervingly slow and lilting, yet airy and unpredictable in its key. It reminded Ruby of something you might hear at a carnival. Except the way he had slowed it to match more to a waltz made her blood feel cold. She wouldn’t call him ‘good’ in any field – aside from weirding her the heck out – but his voice being used in such a way was eerily skilled in how theatrical it was. Perhaps even operatic. Like a siren from a story book. Even the crickets went silent.

For someone with such a cracked psyche, Tyrian moved with grace and fluidity. Half-lidded gold eyes that seemed to almost glow in the dim lighting of the forest remained locked on Ruby’s argent orbs, taking in every little flicker of light and emotion in her irises. A sliding swish of a boot to the side through the grass, swaying into its step with a seamless cock of his hip transitioning into shifting attention to the other foot and stepping forward. Once his first foot followed into step and connected feet together, Ruby was swept into a pivoting turn and then a backwards step. Helplessly, the dark-haired girl was carried along with him and the sway of his coattails. So graceful was the faunus that even the swing of legs dangling like a pendulum were accounted for, not knocking into his legs or disrupting his rhythm even once. As he got even more into the rhythm he was producing, the moves became more elaborate. More twirls, sways and pivots, even the occasional skip in his step.

Staring at her like that, Ruby found it difficult to look away. She wasn’t sure why. Though obviously like this she couldn’t try and glance to his feet to see what he was doing, part of her still wanted to give her something else to focus on. Anything else. Is that why his stinger cupped her chin like it was? To make sure she couldn’t stare at anything but him? Maybe so, but she still saw the blur of trees and foliage at her peripherals. She could look there. But she couldn’t. It started occurring to the former student that the wind of his tail was beginning to slowly constrict tighter around her with every five or so steps. And at the same time, his height was reducing, curling his shoulders closer and closer to her. Just when she thought it was going to be unbearably close, Tyrian’s tail nearly whipped off of her and he gave a whoop of delight to give her a toss into the air. The landing back into his grasp wasn’t a hard stop, it was another transition.

This time his hand slid upwards along her back to rest her lower spine along his forearm as she came down, and his other hand glided its palm down the back of her leg, catching fingers beneath her knee and using the hold there to hitch that leg upon his hip. Tyrian himself had taken a broad step forward, bending the forth leg’s knee and keeping the other straight whilst he hovered over her. His tail was the final piece, hooked around the base of her spine to tug her hips flush with his own. Without support to her upper body, Ruby’s upper back wilted and curled her backwards over his hand and bent leg, brought into a very flamboyant and low-sweeping dip. Widened eyes stared at the world upside-down in the sudden silence that came, without a trace of him in her sight. Only in touch.

Opposing hers, the scorpion’s gaze had a full view of the girl and found itself flickering and darting over her form before drawing closed entirely. Tyrian bowed his head, touching his forehead to Ruby’s collarbone. He wasn’t panting, but his chest expanded with a slow, audibly drawn breath through his nose. The more he had danced with her, watched every glint of confusion and distaste dance in her eyes with them, the more that spark in his own chest became apparent. It had traces of something familiar, and yet so… _not_ familiar. He had found himself grasping at it, clawing for meaning. He came up with none, only feelings he could describe as a vile concoction of cold dislike, heated bloodlust, the creeping thorned tendrils of fixation, and something weighty that he found difficulty putting words to.


	3. Chapter 3

Tyrian firmed his brow and opened his eyes to stare blankly at her skin, roughened digits curling and tensing against her body. Feeling the plush give of her leg underneath his hand, the man turned his head in quizzical annoyance. His temple instead pressed to her collar as he regarded where and how he had her placed. Then things started to shift perspective. He watched himself circle a thumb over the top of her bare knee and stopped trying to analyze what he was feeling inside to take in what he was feeling outside. Warmth. Body heat. A soft, curvy young form dressed in naught but a shirt and whatever it was that she had on underneath.

“…Hmm.” His head raised off her, straightening in posture slightly with a blink. A thoughtful frown worn on his lips, his chin tipped up while partially hooded eyes looked down upon everything beneath. And as far as he was concerned, _she_ was everything beneath. He’d been so busy toying with her that he’d completely overlooked her lack of dress. Ruby continued obliviously looking at the world upside-down, though she was growing a bit worried with how long she was left in this position. What in the world was he doing? Touching her, for one. Sliding his hand to return up the back of her thigh. Thankfully, that movement as well came with a slow raise to bring her upright again. He refused to let her stop pressing against him for the time being.

When her eyes were greeted with the sight of him again, her heart nearly seized in her chest. Pupils constricted faintly with a sudden recognition of danger. He hadn’t said anything just yet, but the look in his eyes… it was something alarming. Only once had she seen a look nearing that intensity, and it not only rivaled but outmatched what she’d seen in his eyes when she cut off his stinger in the first place and spat profanities before retreating. It was dark. It was **_predatory_**. She couldn’t even put an adjective to the other glimmers that she saw in his narrowed expression. Unexpectedly, it softened and lessened. His eyes didn’t any less express the same thing, but his expression eased up; took on a smug, amused smirk and cock of his head. The faunus’ tail coiled more firmly around her abdomen to free up one of his hand to take a hold of her jaw. Finally, he made more sound, bubbling up with a lowly chuckle occasionally intermingled with titters of what seemed almost like brief outbursts of nerves. An auditory display of how uneven and disagreeable to his wants his own mind could be.

“I am only going to ask you this question once, my little flower,” Tyrian rumbled, curling a cool and sly smirk onto his mouth as he lowered into a squatting crouch and subsequently lowered Ruby onto the knee devoid of his touch. The look on his face was something intended to be innocent, charming almost, but the sheer amount of predative nature corrupted it. He leaned in, far too close, aligning the bridge of his nose with hers and staring deep into moonlight orbs. Ruby took notice that he was doing that thing again, with one eye slightly wider than the other. And his pupils had dilated. “When was the last time anyone fucked you?”

… when was the last time anyone...-? Worried confusion bloomed in her irises, trying to search for a meaning in his own stare. That kind of a vulgar word wasn’t something she often heard, but a hissed cuss from her uncle or sister hadn’t been absent, maybe even from her dad on the extremely rare occasion. One of those words that was always inherently bad, that she’d never heard used in a context that wasn’t negative. In any case, with all her knowledge of the phrase pointing to it being akin to ‘messed up’ in some way or another, Tyrian’s usage of it isn’t looking good for her.

For once, he misread the meaning in her eyes. His own narrowed faintly, gripping harsher at her face at what he presumed to be a flicker of defiance and refusal to give an answer with her eyes. It almost looked as if she was angrily questioning why he would ask such a thing. “Come now my darling rose,” He growled, a touch less amused and shoving his forehead harder against hers, “I know you’ve been traveling quite a bit but surely one of those hormonal boys must’ve…” His point was accented by moving his other hand down the back of her thigh again, and this time when it went back up, worn spindly fingers crept like a spider up the inside. Tyrian’s voice turned to something lower, huskier, and the roughened faint scruff of his cheek scraped against the side of her face when he moved to bow his head and murmur with lips ghosting by her ear. Its low tone and close proximity tingled pressure into her spine at the base of her neck and inspired a dappling of goosebumps.

“…must’ve **_touched_ ** you here, mmm?” The faunus accented the word by moving his hand from the inside of her thigh to cup between her legs and roll his palm. “A blossoming young Huntress such as yourself, you must be **_boiling_** with all _sorts_ of hormones.” She heard him release a snigger bitten into his tongue. “But maybe with that pesky uncle of yours around you haven’t had the time. A little pent up?” Tyrian himself shifted onto one knee, petting his fingers almost thoughtfully over the cotton keeping him from touching her bare mound. Just as he’d mused on her diminutive stature before dancing, cupping his palm to her groin painted other more vulgar images in his mind that accented just what a small and young thing she was. It wouldn’t be the first time he raped someone, no, not at all. But it _would_ be the first time he’d rape someone so young. He couldn’t help but find the idea of it gruesomely tantalizing.

But when he pulled back with that lustful, predatory grin, he was surprised by what he was on her face. Twin suns blinked, quirking a brow in confusion and dropping the look. Even his hand ceased its motion. What he saw on the face of Ruby Rose? In her eyes? _Nothing._ Granted, on her face, he would’ve expected no expression; but it wasn’t just that. The girl didn’t even have a hint of a blush to her cheeks. No embarrassment, humiliation at being spoken to in such a lascivious manner, no demure fluster even to the direct coaxing of his fingers over her loins. And when he stared at her eyes, he realized that he’d misread her initial expression. All he saw was confusion. Uncertainty. Questioning. She didn’t look at him any more harshly than any of the other times he’d laid a hand on her. Tyrian’s pupils dilated more, a new flurry of lust invading his chest.

“No…” He spoke in breathless disbelief, lips twitching before splitting his face in an achingly broad grin. “Ehehe- ehahaha—you’re… -- KEHAHAHA!” He dropped her entirely to recoil with a stumble back, right hand pushing fingers into the hair at the top of his head and curling the digits. The left pressed to his opposite cheek, eyes getting teary with boisterous, manic laughter. Ruby was left in a heap on the ground, forced to endure the uncontrolled, unrestrained bout of deranged cackling. At first he doubled over, the hand on his face moving to clutch his stomach, and then he stumbled to the side and nearly dropped to his knees. It went on for too long, until Tyrian flicked an index finger beneath the lid of his eye to do away with any tears of euphoria that might’ve tried to escape. It died down to sniggering, occasional wheezing chuckles as he returned to the fallen girl’s side.

In a mockery of tenderness, after crouching and hunching his shoulders as his posture was wont to do, Salem’s scorpion brushed the knuckles of his right hand over her left cheek. Silver eyes flickered in confusion to the touch, and then back up to his face. Head cocked, he made a similar expression as before. A grin intended to be charming, but predatory nature twisting it into something unnerving and disgusting. “You’re a virgin,” Tyrian cooed, “ _Aren’t_ you?” Still keeping his crouched posture, he used his free hand and a hop of his boots to shift to the side and towards where the fallen log was. The movement was akin to the shuffle of an ape.

Withdrawing his touch from her, the male lowered from a crouch into something more like a proper sit in the grass, lower back braced to the log. He did however, keep his gangly legs spread apart. The insectile chitter of exoskeletal plates shifting against one another was all the warning Ruby got before his tail snaked around underneath her arms, raising her up enough to drag her across the ground towards him. She was completely helpless as she was turned to let her back lay against his torso, body nestled between legs that crossed at the ankle over her own to keep her caged despite her inability to move. The back of her head rested against his pectoral, but he was more than content to curl over her to brush the bridge of his nose through dual-toned hair, pausing to press in at the back of her ear.

Half-lidding his eyes, Tyrian took a slow inhale of her scent; far too audible for Ruby’s comfort. A purring hum vibrated through his chest against her back, delighted with what he found. The uniquely Ruby Rose fragrance that tantalized his olfactory senses was like that of a freshly bloomed rose that had been dipped in sweet sugar. Underlying all of it was a more hormonal scent he’d come to recognize as adolescence. This time he pressed his lips right against the shell of her ear, voice dropped to a low and lustful growl that caused alarms of warning to spark in her brain. “I know **_exactly_** what I can take from you, lovely rose. I do still owe you for my tail.” Said appendage laid over her stomach to remind her of it. When Ruby glanced to it, she noticed truly how ugly the grafting looked. Black melding into brown, looking almost cracked or veiny in some places with how desperately it had tried to grow into place. “Ehehaha, I’m sure you know I’ve a terrible time controlling myself. I regret to inform you my lovely, but I _must_ give in to temptation.”

The gold of the faunus’ lecherous gaze was focused on work of his hand. One had settled on the dip of her waist, but the other curled his fingers over the hem of her blouse to begin drawing it up her stomach to show more of that porcelain flesh. He was a bit surprised to find that the Huntress didn’t have as trim and fit a body as she seemed in all those clothes she wore. Thighs thick enough to press together and deny a gap between when standing. Pressing his palm and spanning his fingers over her stomach found that she had a layer of pudge there as well. Baby fat, perhaps. It made the man hiss a snicker into her ear, tensing and pawing his fingers over the plain of previously unseen skin. He enjoyed the give that it had, she was a comfortably cushy girl. Of course, he could feel muscle beneath, but it wasn’t toned to the point of having a corded tactility.

“Heheh,” He chuckled, “A bit on the… _soft_ side for a Huntress, don’t you think?” Tyrian teased, moving his fingers to give a pointed pinch at her hip. He didn’t crane his head to see if that made her embarrassed at all – which, it didn’t. Ruby was occasionally teased by her sister to work out more and stop eating so much, but she never paid much attention to her self-image anyhow. She didn’t care, as long as it didn’t get in the way of her combat efficiency. Another juvenile snicker from the neurotic hunter, giving his cheek a derisive nuzzle against her hair. “That’s quite alright. I don’t mind it. In fact, I must say that I believe I rather enjoy it.”

Fingers toyed at the hem of her boyshorts, making a cluck of his tongue to denote he wasn’t exactly pleased with her plain and boring choice of undergarment. He didn’t comment on it, but he did roll his shoulders in a shrug to himself. He was already being granted so much; he couldn’t have it all. “What I am going to enjoy far more however, my dear, is trespassing upon this…” He licked his lips as digits crept beneath the forbidden line of cotton, “… untouched little garden of yours.” The heel of his palm slid over the soft flesh of the girl’s mound, seeking the proper treasure below.

She was smooth, wonderfully so, and he deduced that she must’ve taken the time to shave as soon as she’d gotten the chance. Tyrian snickered with delight, keeping a near-constant grin on his face in some manner of intensity or another. “My, my, my. So soft. Had you been expecting someone to have a visit~?” He teased, “Heehee! So kind of you to keep your garden so orderly. You must be wanting someone to admire it. Rest assured,” He began with teeth bit down on his bottom lip to rumble a noise of approval upon brushing his middle two fingers over her clit, where they promptly spread in a ‘v’ to glide along her labia, “I’ll treasure every bud and petal.”

Ruby was getting an overwhelming feeling of not understanding what he was saying. His innuendos went right over her head. The way he teased was irritating her, and what’s worse is that he was touching her in a place and in a way that felt so… wrong. Ruby Rose was a virgin in every sense and aspect of the word, likely much more so than he could realize without her speaking. She’d never even touched herself like that, and anxiety of the unknown was twisting in the pit of her stomach. Her legs ached to close, forbid him from touching her like that. But she could do nothing but stare in alarm at the hand over her groin, caught beneath the stretched band of underwear that clung to the back of his wrist.

“You are a bit of a lucky girl, my little flower.” Tyrian mused in a surprisingly neutral tone, “I have plenty of time to spend with you, and I’m certain I’ll be wanting to do this again once I am finished with you.” His eyes stared unwavering, like they were in a trance, watching the shift and stretch of her boyshorts with every move of his hand. The back heel of one of his boots hooked under her right knee to drag it to the side and spread her thighs more so he could observe his motions better. “I could easily break you for your first time, you know. As exhilarating as that would be, I’d prefer to be able to enjoy you again and again until it is time to gift you away. I could start now and let your preparation be damned. Instead, I’ll be happy to coax a bit of nectar from those petals to make it easier on you, you poor tiny thing.” Towards the end of his sentence, his voice took on a mocking babyish tone, and he scrubbed his cheek against the top of her hair in a perversion of an affectionate nuzzle. The faunus chuckled again, heated breath spilling out and fluttering tufts of dark two-toned hair.

Even lower he moved his head, using the bridge of his nose to nudge her head aside to tilt against his chest. From there, his tongue slid out of his mouth to glide a wet line up along the side of her face. Ruby’s eyes shut again to try and ignore the disgusting feeling. Paralyzed, she wasn’t numb. It was warm and wet and slimy and gross, and she **loathed** it. Nerves danced beneath her skin with a want to shudder, only to find her muscles didn’t cooperate to allow her to react in such a way. Down below, a pair of calloused fingers pet along her most intimate places. She wasn’t sure when it had happened – he distracted her with that lick – but the pair aligned on silken folds had shifted to his index and ring fingers to spread the petals apart and probe his middle finger between. Another one of those lowly growls rumbled in his chest and he hissed with delight right in her ear, fingers of the opposite hand tightening on her waist.

“Ohoho, _yes_ you are _quite_ the small one. I’m going to enjoy **_hurting_** you.” The end of his tail curled and uncurled, and all at once, something in Tyrian’s mind clicked. His movements ceased, narrowing his eyes in what might’ve been perceived as suspicion had she been able to see the expression on his face. The fact she couldn’t see it worried her, and the longer silence went, the more she worried about it. Finally, after a ten second pause, the faunus’ hand slipped back out of her underwear and grabbed her by the hip. Pressure shifted onto his feet so he could get up, giving the dead weight in his hands a brief toss to readjust his grip as well as turn her to face him.

Tyrian leaned to the side and tipped his head as well to peek underneath Ruby’s limply hanging one to smile at her. “I have just had a revelation, dear flower. You see, I could have taken you kicking and screaming from your friends and family – or at least, I wanted to. I made the mistake once of not ambushing you whilst you were alone. But this time…” He leaned in to press his forehead to hers, smile growing into a sadistic, crooked grin. “This time we’re alone. There isn’t a soul around to hear you _scream_. As much fun as it’s been treating you like a precious doll, I want to hear you cry and beg. I want to see you _squirm_. Fight me, if you can. But,” The scorpion withdrew out of her space again to drop her to the ground. A sharp flick of his wrists popped out the blades on his bracers, and he rolled his shoulders with a faint popping of vertebrae. “I’ll make sure it’s a fight you can’t win, first.”

He hadn’t forgotten about her aura, about her semblance. He’d drain her aura just enough to make things interesting. If all went well, he could get his lust-heated blood pumping with a good chase. Ruby had seen what he could do when both her and her friends were against him, how he could hold his own versus them all. Surely, she wasn’t stupid enough to stick around and fight with a depleted aura and no weapon, there was no way she wouldn’t try to make a run for it. But the girl didn’t know just how deep into the forest they were, and even if she bolted off with her semblance, he’d make sure not to leave enough for her to get very far.

Pupils drawn to pinpricks, the silver-eyed girl watched completely helpless as Tyrian loomed over her, face split with a horrid, cruel flash of ecstatic teeth. Ruby closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see the hits coming. The faunus wound back a hand and thrust it forward again to strike her in the stomach. “What’s the matter?!” Tyrian crowed, slashing with the other hand and reveling in the flash of sparking crimson across her body as her aura absorbed the blow. But he was still hurting her. It was a shame she couldn’t flinch, curl up, cry and recoil with every hit, but he kept going anyway. One after the other, keeping a close if erratic eye on the intensity of the bolts of protection. “Aren’t you having **FUN**?! _Kyeehehahaha!_ ” Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, but she didn’t let them spill. Ruby endured every blow, he even kicked her a few times, continuously weakening her aura until it was barely protecting her.

The faunus gave her one last good strike before sliding the blades on his wrists away and grabbing her by the throat. The action made Ruby’s eyes snap open, chest fluttering for air as red sparks crackled over her skin and indicating she was using the very last of her aura. Tyrian’s face had taken on a deliriously euphoric snarl, fingers curled around her neck pulling tighter. The other hand shoved into his coat to paw for something; a vial of what looked like faintly cloudy water. After taking it out, his wrist jittered a few times to shake it up and then used his thumb to knock off the stopper. Keeping her held by the throat, the lip of the vial was pushed against her mouth. He managed to press it enough to get past her lips, and once he had, he dumped the contents on her tongue. Ruby’s eyes watered, and chest lurched to try and expel the horrid taste from her mouth.

Glaring, he threw aside the vial to land on his bedroll carelessly and used his now-freed hand to clamp her mouth shut. At the same time, Tyrian crept a pair of fingers up to pinch her nose closed. “ **Swallow** _._ ” Ruby didn’t know what was in the vial, so she didn’t want to. Not to mention it tasted disgusting, it was unbearably bitter. But the automatic locomotion of her internal muscles forced her to swallow when she couldn’t breathe from her nose or mouth, trying instinctively to clear whatever was blocking her from doing so. His expression softened to a smug, lazy grin. “There’s a good girl. I wonder if I can pull off that trick twice…”

It took a few seconds for the antivenom to start kicking in, but Ruby managed to give her toes a wiggle. Two seconds after she did that, she decided to go for the gold. At the same time she twisted her expression into hateful effort, she barked out a noise and thrust both her feet straight into his chest. It knocked the wind right out of the scorpion and made him drop her to stumble back, heel hitting the log he once rested against. Instead of tripping however, Tyrian only manipulated his backwards fall into a backbend over his hands. Just when he busted out cackling with thrilled euphoria, Ruby bolted. Her form exploded into a flurry of red petals and dashed away into the brush. Leaves and thin branches rustled from the rush of wind in wake of those petals. She went until she couldn’t hear him cackling anymore.

Luckily for her, that was the same time that the last of her aura drained away and forcefully reformed her in mid-air. Ruby’s eyes widened and she squeaked, tucking her body to safely tumble into the bushes, ending up on her hands and knees, staring at the mix of grass and leafy underbrush. Her chest heaved with panicked breaths, panting a few times before scrambling to her bare feet. She didn’t have time to rest, she had to get out of here. She had to get back to her friends. Back to Uncle Qrow. Back to _anyone_ else so that she could alert _someone_ to her predicament. Even if Tyrian caught her again, she could find someone, tell them to warn her friends and her uncle. The pricking and stinging pains of her feet cracking over twigs and rocks was ignored, adrenaline fueling her legs to run endlessly.

Tyrian wasn’t far behind. Not nearly as far as she might’ve wanted to hope he was. Giggling uncontrollably, the scorpion leapt from branch to branch, following the trail she’d left. Being a faunus, it was absurdly easy for him to pick up a scent trail on her. He didn’t need to worry about which direction she’d gone. When the young girl heard the echo of deranged sniggering and cackling around her, her heart pumped harder, forced more blood and adrenaline into her legs to let her run faster. But she couldn’t outrun him, not a fully-aura’d hunter like him; when she had tried to take shots at him back at Oniyuri, she had even found difficulty tracking his movements enough to make a shot. _Her_ , whose semblance so closely incorporated speed. Tyrian Callows was a force to be reckoned with, and she was entirely defenseless.

She shouldn’t have been as surprised as she was when he sprung out ahead of her, tackling her to the ground with a crazed look on his face. Ruby screamed in alarm and her hands shoved out to try and claw, punch, shove at his face and chest. He didn’t even care, he took every hit like it was nothing. He let himself get punched in the jaw, head thrown to the side. He snagged the offending hand in his own grasp and pinned it to the ground with a snicker. She didn’t allow herself to be bested so easily, bashing the heel of her palm against the underside of his nose. With a sharp **_crack_** , amused tittering came to a short stop and his grinning expression fell.

“Augh-!” Tyrian barked, using his free hand to cup over his nose. His expression twisted with discomfort when he wiggled it around, but he paid no attention to the blood on his palm when he wiped it up his nose and caused it to smear over his upper lip, the columella, and the tip of his nose. Easily he could’ve protected the damage with his aura or healed it up again. The truth was, he didn’t have it activated right now. Why? He _wanted_ her to fight. He _wanted_ to feel the pain of her doing just that. It was _exhilarating_ , and it showed on his face when he only flashed another lopsided grin and pinned her other wrist. Ruby’s own expression twisted with effort, hatred, disgust, grunting and huffing while she tried to pull her wrists free from the cage of his digits. Seeing her so expressive, it reminded him of how much he’d missed seeing it.

“Hnnhnhnhn~” He chuckled, biting his lip and leaning down. The end of his braid had spilled over his shoulder and tickled the expanse of flesh on her heaving little chest, while the hair that wasn’t caught in the ties stuck to his forehead and temples in wild strands. “Isn’t this fun, my darling flower?” The psycho cooed in somewhere between a mocking purr and primal growl, “I love it _so_ much more when you struggle.”

“Rnnghh— get **_off_** of me! Let go!” Ruby squawked and snarled, bucking underneath the faunus. She tried to lift a leg so she could kick him again, but he stopped her before she could by whipping his tail around to collect both of her knees. His own were locked either side of her hips, body looming over her blocking out what little light that the shattered moon cast over her to bathe the Huntress in shadow. Tyrian’s eyes ticked up and he hummed thoughtfully, before responding with a pleased, “No.” Pearly teeth bared in a snarl from the girl, continuing to earnestly tug and yank at the hands caging her wrists. They didn’t budge, and the faunus merely spectated with an absolutely tickled giggled and bite of his lip. For the time being, he had nothing to say, just enjoyed watching her struggle and fight. Let the poor little thing tucker herself out if she really thought she was going to get away.

“I did it once, I’ll cut your tail off again if I have to!” She snapped. The reminder made Tyrian’s cheek twitch once, but he brushed it off. Predatory eyes watched his hands slowly drag Ruby’s wrists together over her head, not even regarding her expression for the time being. “Heehee, is that so~? You with what defenses? With what _friends_ to help you? With what _weapon_ are you going to sever my precious, beautiful new stinger with?” The man proposed, cocking his head to the side and lofting a brow to prompt her, “Hm?”

The silver-eyed girl blinked a few times, huffing a couple breaths and ceasing her struggling. As much as she hated to admit it – and she wouldn’t, to that steadily broadening grin – he had a point. The last time she’d mutilated him had only been after not just intervention of three friends, but her uncle as well. Like with the death of Roman Torchwick, it seemed that it was by complete luck that she was able to pull something like that off. Tyrian watched her throat bob with a thick, forced swallow, and then her eyes warily glared at him. “So– what is it you want from me? As soon as my aura builds back up enough I’ll run and you won’t be able to kidnap me for Salem.”

Her question was met with silence. His expression blank, just blinking and staring at her for a full ten seconds before starting up with a quiet giggle. Time went on until it could build up into a true guffaw, the man releasing her hands – only to snag them in his tail – and sitting back on her own legs so he could smack a hand over his eyes and indulge in his laughter. Ruby’s hateful expression morphed with a hint of concern and confusion, not understanding what he thought was so funny. “Heehehehaahaha~! Tchh-kehehe, you really haven’t the slightest idea, have you?”

The scorpion started to stand and drew Ruby with him by pulling her up by her wrists using his tail. As he was doing so, his laughter died down again. She had to scramble her feet under her to stand as well, lest she wanted her arms yanked out of their sockets. No sooner had she stood up properly did the faunus tug her in with arms around her waist, hugging her back to his chest. “Oh I can tell we’re going to have _so_ much fun together you and I, my dear fl–” “I’m **not** ‘your’ anything!” Ruby was sure to interrupt. It only made Tyrian chuckle again, reaching a hand up despite her pawing and pushing at the arm keeping her captive so he could give one of her cheeks a playful pinch.

“Silly girl. Fear not, I’ll have some of those bad manners of yours corrected by the end of the night.” His finger touched a little bop to her nose, and Ruby jolted her head to try and bite at it. Tyrian was faster, withdrawing his hand in a sharp jerk and tittering. “Feisty little one, aren’t you?” His voice lowered a few octaves, pressing his face in against her hair as he began making the walk back to his camp. “I _knew_ you would be.” As bleak as her escape looked, the reaper still tried. Squirming and kicking and doing anything she could. With his arms around her keeping her against his body, there was no need to bother with her hands. Ruby’s legs, however, as much as he liked them, were becoming a nuisance. So his tail coiled tight around her ankles and held them still, kept them from kicking at him while he walked.

At one point, she did at least manage to elbow him in the gut, but it was only a brief annoyance and earned a shift of his arms to catch over top of her own to prevent so much movement from them. Sounds of effort spilled into the foliage as the former student struggled and tried to escape her kidnapper, but Tyrian only peppered those sounds with a cheery humming. Not nearly the siren-like grace of a tune he’d performed earlier while dancing, far shorter little punctuations kept the tone chipper. Back to his camp he went, and as soon as he had her there, Ruby was dropped. The abrupt stop made her yelp, but before she could try and roll out of the way, she wheezed to the stomp of a boot on her stomach. Ruby tipped her chin down to look, released hands prying at Tyrian’s foot to try and get it off her. Again, he wasn’t having it.

Instead, the faunus was busying himself with shrugging his coat off his shoulders and letting the dark brown material pool behind his back. Now that he could finally have hands off Ruby, the tall male arched his back and pushed his hands over his forehead and cranium to push stray hair out of his face again. “There we are… much more comfortable.” After giving his neck a crack to the side, one white-clothed knee lowered to the grass beside Ruby’s hip, and the boot on her stomach shifted off so he could straddle her again. “Now then. Where were we?” Just in case she had any funny ideas about squirming away again while he was working them into position, he kept his hands firm around her waist, and rolled them over so she was on top and he could scoot over to rest his back on the log. Just like he’d been before they left.

Care was taken to make sure that he could catch those kicking little legs with his lankier ones. Over her hips and between her thighs is where he settled his boots, sliding them away from one another so he could part her legs. His tail wound itself around Ruby’s waist and arms, making sure she stayed tied to him. His hands? One settled for seizing her hair to keep her from headbutting him, and the other wandered back to its new favorite place. Sliding beneath the hem of her underwear. “—Hey! What are you doing?! Don’t do that you freaking creep!”

Tyrian found it amusing that even now, the girl held such purity that she wouldn’t even curse at him with his hand in her shorts. What was also amusing was the genuine confusion in her voice when she demanded to be informed of what he was doing. Gold eyes took on a hazy half-lid again, rumbling a low purr right by her ear. Index and ring fingers pressed down against her petals, and he was delighted to find that this time when he spread them apart, his ears were tantalized with a puzzled mew. The very sound itself made him growl, but more than that, when he stroked his middle finger along her slit, the faunus found a hint of moisture. He giggled ecstatically and circled the pad of the digit over her hole itself.

“ ** _Naughty_** little girl. You don’t even know what I’m going to do and you’re excited~?” Pressure of that finger against her body made Ruby squirm, and the insides of her thighs tensed and pressed against the outsides of his own legs. Her brow knit, fidgeting her shoulders and uttering, “That feels weird. Don’t—” Ruby promptly winced, simultaneous to Tyrian’s hiss of satisfaction when the finger slipped inside. He let the digit slide in as far as it would go, paused, and then pulled it back to start pumping his finger into her. Impatiently, he stuck his nose into her neck and inhaled her scent deeply. Another growl exhaled from the man, taking no regard for her comfort at the time being.

After his tongue lapped a line over her jugular, feeling the vibration of her snipped “Stop doing that!” it shifted to slide back and forth between his lips until the sensation became almost numb out of repetition. “What a tight little flower,” he sighed, “But I know you’re a big girl. Aren’t you?” He teased with a lick over the shell of her ear that caused her to grunt and recoil as far out of the grasp he had to her hair as possible, “Show me what a big strong girl you are, and let’s play a little game.” Instantly Ruby sneered in dislike, even managing to bubble up a growl of her own. She was relieved when his hand withdrew from her boyshorts, but less-so when it raised to start unbuttoning her blouse.

“No more of your stupid games. Let go of me already!” The girl demanded, struggling anew. Her eyes pinched shut with the effort it took to try and get out of his hold. Tyrian’s golden gaze rolled, chortling in delight. His hand left her hair so he could snatch her chin, turning her head to force her to peek an eye at him. “Oh, but you’ll like this one. It’s perfectly fair. Even possible for you to win this time!” He tried to sell the idea to her, even though she obviously wouldn’t be swayed. Hungry eyes trailed down to her chest as he started pulling the buttons of her blouse, showing more and more of her soft pale skin. Ruby didn’t say a word, only huffed out angry breaths at him, so the faunus elaborated. “You see, it’s very simple, silver eyes. All you have to do is one thing. Just one _teensy_ weensy little thing, and I will reward you nicely.”

Even as he started to undress her more, she didn’t blush. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, and even as she felt his fingers pulling at more buttons to bare more flesh to his lascivious gaze, she hesitantly questioned him in return. “Yeah? What’s that?” Obviously, he took no small amount of glee in the fact that she’d responded at all. Smiling like the cat that ate the canary, Tyrian cocked his head. “ ** _If_** you don’t cry when I take your virginity, maybe I’ll even get you off.” Ruby blinked owlishly, and her chin tugged in his palm. He didn’t let her rear her head back in disbelief.

“My— …? Get me off?” The reaper scoffed incredulously, scowling at him. “And what if I don’t want you to do either of those things?” He could tell, of course, that she didn’t know what he meant by ‘get her off’, but it was irrelevant. Tipping his own chin up and closing his eyes with an expression of disinterest, Tyrian shrugged. “It’s all of the same to me; whether you like it or not I’m going to hurt you. Since I rather like you, I thought I would offer you the chance to get a bit of an easier treatment. But if you’re going to be stubborn, so be it.” One of his golden orbs peeked open, corners of his mouth twitching with a want to grin when he saw her lip curling to sneer. “Do remember my darling flower, that I can paralyze you again at any time. You can’t stop me. I would truly prefer not to break you too harshly before I get the chance to use you again, but if you continue to misbehave and make things difficult for me then I may be forced to.” Tyrian lowered his chin again so he could touch his forehead to hers. “Am I making myself clear?”

For a while, she didn’t answer. Ruby was thinking it over. She didn’t want him doing whatever it was he was going to do, that much was obvious. But if she struggled too much, he’d paralyze her. At the very least, maybe if she wasn’t paralyzed she could keep him from doing anything _too_ bad, and she could speak her mind and express her hatred for him better. Wanting to move and not being able to had been incredibly frustrating for her, so Ruby wanted to avoid that. Not to mention that she was completely out of aura. If he hurt her too much, then it would take longer for her to develop enough of it to be able to use her semblance to escape him because she would be too busy trying to heal herself. The longer it took to escape, the farther he’d be able to get her away from her friends and family, and the harder it would be for her to get help from them.

Silver eyes avoidantly cut to the side. “Clear.” She informed him. That singular word warmed his heart to hear. The faunus beamed crookedly and made a cooing sound of joy. “Wonderful! So glad we could reach an agreement.” At the same time, the last button came undone and he didn’t waste a moment more in yanking her blouse open to expose her more. The only thing that disappointed him was the lack of a surprised sound, not even a hitch of breath in her throat. Tyrian purred low, coasting his hand up her stomach and along her ribcage until he could catch her right breast in his right hand and give it a rolling squeeze, testing over the surface. Ruby couldn’t stay silent to that one. “Nngh.” It was small, but it was a start. A girlish little grunt.

It spurred him to titter anyhow, a pair of fingers seeking the pale pink bud at the tip of her breast. Her nipple had already peaked to stimulation into a pert round half-marble shape. “I’ll give you some credit,” He murmured, craning his neck back down to slide his tongue along the underside of her jaw and taste her skin, “You certainly do hide a bit more curve in those clothes than one might realize. The little rosebud seems to be blossoming into quite the beautiful young flower.” Once his index finger and thumb pinched on her nipple, Ruby piped out with a yelp and her face twisted to wince faintly; trying not to give off how much that discomforted her. It turned into a whine of dislike when he pulled his hand back and kept his fingers tightly held. As much as she hated to, she tried to keep her mind off the pain and instead focus on trying to decipher the unintelligible polygons that his tongue drew on the way down the side of her throat.

“Ah-!” Ruby cried upon receiving a sharp bite where her shoulder met her neck. Tyrian growled, latching his teeth onto her and making sure to break the skin. Once pinpricks of blood welled up, the heat of his tongue swept over the beads and smeared them over his taste buds. Warm and coppery, he could even still practically taste the adrenaline that her delicate little heart had pumped through her veins to escape him. The lust in his chest seeped heat into his groin, and the faunus rolled his hips to find a grind of stimulation against her lower back. He’d been sporting at least half an erection since he started touching her, it hadn’t done much wavering during their chase. Finally, Tyrian’s left hand released her head to grab between her legs and wrench her panties away from her own groin. He dragged them as close to her knees as his patience would allow, and promptly dove his hand to cup over her mound.

Gold eyes opened so he could stare down at his work. Lustfully they coasted over the mounds of her chest, rising and falling with panting breaths of anxiety, one of them already caught in his clutches. As he continued further, over the expanse of milky skin on her stomach, the hand pulling her nipple eased and settled for kneading his fingers roughly around her breast. Youthfully plump, it was deliriously fun to paw at the soft flesh. Down his gaze moved to watch between her forcefully parted legs. From what he could see at this angle, she was even more beautiful than she’d felt. Ruby could feel slick heat ooze down over her collar from where he’d begun to drool where he was mouthing at her neck. Her own brows raised with a small choked noise when abruptly, a pair of fingers shoved into her and pressed their tips against her upper wall.

The bottoms of her eyelids twitched, and Tyrian hissed in satisfaction to being able to see how her thighs jerked to try and close around his legs. “Ah-ah,” He scolded as if to a child, raising his head off her shoulder and setting his chin down atop her hair, “Trust me, you’ll want me to warm you up a bit first. Keep those legs open, my dear.” Without warning, that pair of fingers bobbed rapidly up and down, keeping a press on her upper wall. Ruby’s lips parted with a teeny gasp, shortly followed by an awkward croaking. The psychotic faunus had to keep her from trying to hunch over herself by moving his hand off her breast and splaying his palm out to apply pressure to her sternum instead. The feeling that movement inside her was giving her was… admittedly a little scary. Tingling jolts of nerves passed in short shocks in her underbelly, her stomach hitching as well. It felt like… like some sort of panic attack reaction, but only half of one.

“Hh—haah-aaha—” Throaty breaths puffed from her, and with half-lidded and gilded orbs, the male tilted his chin down to rest his lips against her hair. “Shhhh… sh, sh,” Tyrian shushed, “That’s it… mneheh, you are a bit sensitive, aren’t you? All the more fun for me~” Of course he would’ve liked to shove into her with no preparation, stretch her painfully, but the girl was small enough that if he didn’t at least do something then he didn’t think he’d be able to actually fit. He was enough of a masochist himself that he certainly wouldn’t have minded some uncomfortable clenching around him. But Salem’s insectile hunter was already growing impatient, and it seemed almost as quickly as those fingers had dipped into her, they were pulling out again. Ruby wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or worried.

Tyrian’s face pulled into a near-snarl, not bothering to clean off his fingers before reaching under her to blindly grope for his belt. Jingling and jangling lit up her ears while he yanked the leather free from the buckle. “I can’t take this anymore,” The beast hissed, “Time for us to see if you really are as strong as you think.” Despite his impatience, he managed with the same grace that he had held when he danced with her to release the Huntress, shove her forward, roll her over, and pin her underneath him. No more chest-to-back, he wanted to see the look on her face. He couldn’t help but be pleased with what he saw; a proper flush of pink beginning to bloom on her precious young face. Heat that had been caused from his fingering. Looping his tail around her neck pinned her down by the throat and got her to busy her hands with trying to scratch and claw at the chitin plates for freedom and oxygen. It kept them away from him so he could work the front of his pants open, and kneel between her legs in the grass. That is of course, after dragging her underwear off entirely to pluck off her ankles and toss to his bedroll to join the discarded vial.

The back of Ruby’s blouse brushed against the grass once Tyrian had gotten his pants open and grabbed her by the hips to drag her closer. On his way to lean over her, he groaned at the very sight of his fully-hardened cock aligned over her lower belly. He’d be going plenty deep into that short silver-eyed warrior. He obsessed over the idea and determined that he’d fit himself into her and give it his all no matter what it took, no matter if he broke her or not. Ruby spooked to the heavy thud of a palm over her shoulder, next to her head. Wide eyes stared up at his face for a moment, regretting the instant that silver melded with gold, because he grinned wickedly at her. “Now, remember the agreement,” Tyrian chided, lowering his head and allowing the rope of his braid to pool over her chest when he bowed lips near her ear, “I don’t want to see a single tear shed down those pretty cheeks.”

Forehead pressed to her unbitten shoulder, he had no issue arching his spine to peer almost upside-down at her body to use his spare hand to circle his fingers around the base of his cock. A single stroke coaxed a purr from him, before angling his hips back and nestling the broad tip against her petals. Another groan, fluttering his eyes. She felt so warm, so silken, so _small_. Just resting the head between her folds kept them spread apart, and he wished he could see just how much larger he was than she. Thankfully, his flower seemed to help with that by soon pleasing his ears with unintentional praise. It never ceased to amuse him just how clueless she was to what he was doing to her.

“Wait- what is that? What are you doing?” Ruby blurted in a breathless gasp, squirming her hips as panic started to rise. It was hot and hard and wide. Too wide. Wanting to hear what she had to say, Tyrian loosened the hold of his tail around her throat. Her brain scrambled to remember what they taught her way back in that one mandatory class at Signal, about what you do down there. Admittedly, she’d been bored out of her mind during it, and fell asleep. So, she couldn’t remember anything helpful aside from that whatever it was, he obviously intended to put it in her. “You can’t!” She tried to hiss, which only broadened his grin, “Doooon’t put that there, that’s way too big and you’ll split me in half!” A rogue thought occurred to her that made her heart bound anxiously against the interior of her ribcage. What if that’s what he wanted? Oh _gods_ she really didn’t want to be split in half that way.

“Mmmm, all the more reason this is so exciting~!” The male chimed, keeping a hand on her hip to prevent her from squirming away, “Beg me.” The girl scoffed in response, furrowing her brow. “What?” “Beg me,” Tyrian repeated, “Beg me to fuck you.” Ruby’s pink-cheeked expression twisted in distaste and she snapped her refusal. “No- that’s… no!” Contemplatively, the scorpion lifted his head to peek at her, meet her glare. “Perhaps you would prefer I use my stinger to take your virginity?” That shut her up real fast. With him hunched over her like he was, she couldn’t see what was down there, but she knew that’s not what it was. His stinger was cold, barbed, and _much_ thicker. With an ear so close to her chest, Tyrian heard her swallow thickly.

“F--…Fuck … me.” She obliged after a long pause. “ _Please_ ,” Tyrian corrected. Silver eyes squeezed shut tight, whimpering at the sensation of the thick shape below impatiently rubbing up and down along her slit. “ _Please_ … fuck—me.” A fisted hand punched angrily at his shoulder when he tutted his tongue in disapproval. “All together, my precious rose. Let me hear that cute little whine in your voice.” Her mouth shifted to the side, chewing on the inside of her lip for a few seconds before rushing out a heavy breath. “ _Please_ fuck me.”

The man could’ve groaned anew hearing those words, but instead, nearly squealed and gleefully snickered. “Of course! If you insist~” Lanky hips bucked to spear his cock at her, jabbing her with a sudden pressure that made her gasp, only for it to be slid against her instead. The insides of her knees knocked a twitch against the outside of his hips, his length having skipped away from the small entry point to grind against her clit instead. Tyrian growled. He tried once more, and again; his size versus hers caused him to slip up. Curling his fingers angrily into the grass pulled up a few of the blades, and he moved his other hand off her hip. It swiveled around to face fingers downward and spread them over her mound, using a pair to spread and hold the girl’s pink petals as far apart as he could. This time, he went slower, narrowing his eyes and keeping them locked on her groin to watch.

“On the count of three, lovely,” Tyrian warned, “One… two,” After having felt the pressure of his cock against her untouched flower getting a foothold, he snapped his waist forward, choosing to surprise her by going before the count. A sharp pain like red-hot needles seared up Ruby’s spine and a _scream_ ripped from her throat, arching her back in an effort to get away. All in one swift movement, the faunus jammed as much of himself into her body as he could and stole her virginity. Gold eyes fluttered and shut with a deep, husky groan of ecstasy at the way pained velvet walls throbbed and clutched so painfully tight around him, trying desperately to reject the intrusion. She countered him with a wailing cry. It hurt. It _hurt_. Tyrian hissed when the girl raked her nails across his skin, digging deep enough to draw red lines of blood. “Heh. **Oops.** ” An apology for going before the count with absolutely no heart in it.


End file.
